Launch Delays Could Compound, Report Says

Every month that the International Space Station is in "survival mode" is another month that virtually nothing gets done up there, according to a new General Accounting Office report.

Since equipment and additional modules for the station generally can't be carried on the small Russian Soyuz and Progress ships, and since the crew, originally planned to be seven (and realistically has always been three) was reduced to two men after the Columbia breakup, enlargement of the ISS is not possible.

With just two aboard the station and few experiments' delivered and retrieved in the Russian craft, the ISS crew can't do planned science work, either.

The Russians are willing, the report says, to continue, and ramp up, its relief work; but the Russians are not going to develop a new technology to fill the gap; and NASA (and possibly other partners) will be expected to fund the additional expenses that such remedial work will entail.

Possibly worst of all, every month that the shuttle fleet doesn't launch represents a concomitant slip in ISS program projects; and some of the equipment that needs to launch, that is ready to go, sitting at Cape Canaveral (FL) -- the longer it sits, the likelier it will need repairs, preventive maintenance, or recertification.

The GAO also says that the space program could be in really deep trouble, pending the in-depth inspections of the surviving shuttles (Atlantis, Endeavour, Discovery) and additional knowledge gained from the ongoing Columbia investigation. Nobody wants to think what could happen, if the shuttles need to be grounded for repair or redesign -- maybe for another year or more.

FMI: (highlights); (full report)